2 ASDF C-130 aircraft arrive in Amman for aid to Iraq

Japan Policy & Politics, July 22, 2003

AMMAN, July 14 Kyodo

Two C-130 transport aircraft of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) arrived in Amman on Monday with 41 members aboard, in the first dispatch of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) planes to assist in the reconstruction of postwar Iraq.

The SDF, sent in accordance with the Japanese law concerning cooperation in U.N. peacekeeping operations, will assist in the delivery of U.N. humanitarian supplies to Iraq, but SDF members are not expected to enter Iraq, which is now occupied by U.S. and British forces.

The Japanese government plans to dispatch SDF personnel to Baghdad and other Iraqi places as early as October to provide logistical support to the U.S. forces once parliament enacts a special law on support for rebuilding Iraq.

The dispatch of SDF abroad is a sensitive issue due to Japan's war-renouncing Constitution. The bill for the special law is being debated in the Diet and is expected to be passed before the current session ends on July 28.

The two transport aircraft, also carrying 14 handguns for the members' self-defense, left the Komaki base in Aichi Prefecture last Thursday and traveled via Okinawa, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates to Amman's Marka airport, which serves both military and civilian planes.

In addition, 49 other SDF members arrived in Amman as an advance team last Thursday by civilian aircraft. The total of 90 members will assist in aid operations, mainly those of the World Food Program (WFP), for one month beginning this Thursday.

They will deliver food and medical supplies, tents, and water tanks from a storage center in Brindisi, southern Italy, to Marka airport and provide air transport to WFP officials.

Japan is the second country after Belgium to send military aircraft to aid in the reconstruction of Iraq. SDF C-130 transport aircraft have been dispatched 29 times since 1992 for peacekeeping operations and aid for refugees, such as to Cambodia and Pakistan.